Freelance: Chinook Fund 2017 Annual Report
GRAPHIC DESIGN
2017 /2018
CLIENT: Chinook Fund
What's the project?
During my fall semester at UCD, myself and two other classmates teamed up with the non-profit Chinook Fund in order to design a print and web-based timeline compiled of all the events throughout Chinook Fund's history that were relevant to their cause. Afterwards, I was approached by the event coordinator at Chinook Fund and asked to design the layout for the 2017 print annual report that would be distributed to staff, grantees and donors who were all apart of the Chinook Fund community. My goal was to create a spread booklet that encased all of the desired information and data given to me, following previous designs and layouts in order to stay on brand and within the Chinook Fund tone. Since these were reports being distributed to many esteemed donors and grantees within the Chinook Fund community, the booklets needed to be professional with the data readable, while maintaining the informational tone of the Chinook Fund brand. I needed to stay on brand from a design perspective, such as color, typography, iconography, and maintain the voice of the Chinook Fund community throughout the booklet, to keep readers familiarized.
What's the process?
Layout Design: December 17
I emailed with the event coordinator at least once a week and we met in person every two weeks in order to exchange information and go over my drafts. Overall, there were three draft check-ins I needed to get approval by the entire staff at Chinook Fund before the final deliverable was due. Each draft check in would have the entire staff reviewing my design and content before adding their critiques and feedback that I would take into account for the next draft design.
Each check-in developed from content feedback to overall design aesthetic by the final check-in before the deliverable was due. Most of the content was provided to me by the staff at Chinook Fund and it was my job to put that content into words on the page and organize the booklet into a timeline that made sense within the book for readers. I was then tasked with creating infographics and iconography for the ROI's on a separate page along with the financial goals.
First Check-In: December 18
The first check-in involved brainstorming and sketching concept ideas for the design and content layout of the annual report. This session was spent with the coordinator and I creating a list of what was necessary to be in the annual report and what could be added if there was room or time. Then we brainstormed different layout ideas for presenting the desired information on a page after the official layout and timeline was created. This brainstorming sessions helped to bring in focus on what was important to the client. Content and typography were the main focuses of each page, however, the client expressed a desire for iconography using the approved color in order to help express certain data within the booklet. After this meeting, my first draft was designed using the content provided to me by the client and creating recognizable iconography for information that could use more visuals alongside the text.
Second Check-In: January 5
The next steps of the design process with Chinook Fund were revisions and research based upon feedback from past grantees and donors. The revisions during this part of the process, focused heavily on the branding of Chinook Fund. I received feedback on making sure that the Chinook Fund brand was informational in terms that anyone could understand, while not sounding harsh or forceful. The tone was lighter and educational with simple iconography and color schemes in order to break up information and data.
The client and I revised the next drafts of the annual report in order to reflect the appropriate branding of Chinook Fund. From here color was integrated throughout the booklet in order to break up dense information and add a flare of design to the report, as requested by the client. During this process, the coordinator remained in large in control of the aesthetic and design with my input being added before I was tasked with the revisions based on previous feedback. At this time, I reminded myself that the clients needs and wants came before all.
Third Check-In: January 10
This check-in involved a meeting with the client in which we were beginning to fine-tune the final aesthetic and design details of the project. By this point all of the content was on brand and appropriately typed out as they should be. These revisions would be focused on revising iconography, layout and color where we looked back at our brainstorming ideas in order to get a better understanding of what information was more relevant than others. This information needed to have hierarchy in order of importance based on the reader's desires and wants throughout the annual report.
Final Check-In: January 15
The final deliverable was turned in a a PDF file and PDF spread along with a packaged file of the design INDD files and links. Chinook Fund remained in charge of the printing, which had me continuously revise and work with CMYK in order to ensure that all colors would print as they appeared on the screen. From here, I handed off the final deliverable to the client with separate files for the report and any individual pages that would be printed and placed into the report a a single sheet.
What's the end result?
At the end of this project I had a better understanding of working towards a print deliverable rather than a digital and web-based deliverable. I worked continuously with the event coordinator as the client's representative and received multiple iterations of feedback in order to revise the design of the annual report. The needs of the clients were always at the front of my mind all the way to the end of this project and I kept myself focused by revising back to previous designs and iterations to see what Chinook Fund was looking for.
A 32 page booklet was completed and printed with two separate informational pages. Due to the booklet containing the client's data as an annual report, to see this overall design, please email me.